


Keeping Faith

by Alley_Skywalker



Category: 18th Century CE RPF, Historical RPF
Genre: Coup d'état, Gen, Loyalty, M/M, can be read as slash or gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 08:58:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17261324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alley_Skywalker/pseuds/Alley_Skywalker
Summary: "I'm staying with you,” Andrei says.





	Keeping Faith

The carriages roll out into the night, a mournful procession of retreat. The nobles of Pyotr Fyodorovich’s encourage, for the most part, have no desire to watch their tsar’s inevitable abdication, so they gratefully heed his insistence that they leave, lest they be persecuted for showing excessive loyalty. The more loyal balk initially at the idea, but Peter is unrelenting in this decision, as in all the others, and few truly intend to keep faith quite so heroically. 

The Prussian envoy is one of the last to leave. Peter puts a hand on Goltz's arm, says, "You ought to leave, I cannot protect you here any longer." 

Goltz tips his hat, mouth pressed into a thin line. "It has been an honor, Your Majesty. Rest assured that if I or Prussia can do anything for you, even now--"

"Go, go!" Peter waves him off, his mood shifting from quietly despondent to irritated in a heartbeat. He turns away from Goltz, hiding the pained frown that creases the corners of his eyes. Goltz bows and hops into a carriage already occupied by two others. They take off with a loud pounding of hooves. Several more minutes pass and the front courtyard is cleared out. In the distance, voices can still be heard - servants milling around, officers and soldiers of the Oranienbaum guard attempting to carry on their duties and routines normally, as they had been ordered to stand down and make no preparations for resistance. 

Peter's instinct had been to fight until the end; that was his first desire. But once it had been impressed upon him - the magnitude of death and human sacrifice that such a stand would take, all in the name of futility -- he had abated. The sheer numbers struck him. Men who would fall not on distant battlefields, ordered to fight and die by his aunt, but would fall lifeless at his feet, on his command. 

He had thought he was prepared for this. The Danish campaign is days away from its first assault. He thought it would be not so hard after all. '

It is unbearable. 

Gudovich comes to stand beside him, close enough for their shoulders to almost touch. His face is unreadable, the despair so deep it cannot find a clear expression on his face. He dares not interrupt Peter's thoughts. 

"Where is Elizaveta Romanovna?" Peter asks, finally, with a start, as though just noticing that Gudovich is even there. 

"Inside, Your Majesty. In your study."

Peter nods and seems to drift off again. Then, suddenly, he turns to Andrei and looks up into his face with an indescribable expression of both longing and resignation. "You should go too. There aren't anymore carriage but there must be horses still..." 

Andrei says nothing, only looks at him, the gesture appreciated in its selflessness but surely not serious—

"Leave, Gudovich!" That same irritation, which Andrei suddenly thinks he understands. Understands what it covers up and conceals - the hurt and the loneliness and baffling belief, against all evidence, that he will inevitably face the worst of his fate alone. 

"Do you truly believe that I would leave you? At such a time?" Andrei’s heart hurts. He reached out, takes Peter's hand and brings it to his lips briefly. 

Peter gives him no answer but is suddenly unable to meet his eyes. 

"I'm staying with you,” Andrei says.


End file.
